Shlomo's Thoughts on the Torah
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© Shlomo Bar-Ayal
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After morning prayers Shlomo Bar-Ayal gives a daily, brief, one to three minute talk on the Portion of the week.
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Ritual is important. The Book of Leviticus deals with the ritual of the Tabernacle and the bringing of sacrifices. But if it is not tied to morality, it is meaningless.
The Commandment of the Red Heifer is one of the hardest to understand. One of the lessons from it is that sometimes there is no good decision. That we have to make a choice between a bad decision and a worse one.
Moses is leaving the Jewish people. Joshua is appointed his successor. Moses wants to remind the Jews that they were freed from Egypt for the purpose of creating a moral and just society in the image of God.
We learn that the Jewish people suffered because of the assassination of Jewish governor of Judah after the destruction of the Temple. The assassination led to tremendous suffering of the Jews. Murder is murder. It never ends the way the murderer wants.
This evening is the "Jewish" New Year. In reality it is the anniversary of the creation of man. We have to remember that the reason for the creation was for man to improve the world through his actions, both spiritually and physically.
True humility is not being totally passive and accepting of whatever comes. True humility is standing up for what is right but realizing that you are part of something larger. That was why Moses was the humblest of men even though he led the people for 40 years.
Unlike idolators we are not fated to remain as we are. God has given us the power to improve our status in life, both spiritually and otherwise. It is all in our hands.
With the High Holidays approaching, we have to take into consideration that we will be asking God for forgiveness. But before we can ask God for forgiveness, we have to make it right with our neighbor.
The Torah commands us to choose life over death. We are not a death cult like our enemies. They have famously stated that the difference between us & them is that we choose life and they choose death.
As we get ready to enter the Land of Israel, the Torah gives us blessings and curses. It is stressing that we are to behave in our society as adults. And adults are responsible for their words & actions.
As we approach Rosh Hashanah, we are taking stock of our actions over the past year and how we can improve ourselves.
When a person commits a crime, he believes that it is acceptable to society. While we should punish the criminal, we should also work to make a better society by making ourselves better people.
The Torah points out that if you want a just and good society you begin with the family. Everything else is based on integrity of the family unit as it is stated in the Book of Genesis. Without a strong family unit society will collapse.
Just because someone disagrees with us does not make them evil. It might make them wrong. Evil people commit evil acts. Mistaken people are wrong.
We have blessings and curses this week. The blessings will come to us if we strive to keep the commandments. The curse is that we will be a normal nation and will be treated as a normal nation. We have to strive for holiness, it does not come naturally.
The fact that we can choose to obey the Torah or not means that we have free will. Something no other creature has. Also, according to Jewish thought, do angels. Only we can choose to do good or evil.
We are commanded to bring the first fruits to the Temple. When we do we have to recite a passage that is a historical review of our history. This is to teach us to remember our history and to learn from it.
We are required to show gratitude to God for His Hand in our success. We need to work for our prosperity but, in the final state, we prosper with divine aid.
Our enemies want us to doubt our arguments. This is moral equivalency. When we are sure about our morality and their evil, then we cannot lose.
The Torah admonishes us to build our communities. To be active. To remember that there are those who want to tear down what has been built but have no intention of rebuilding.
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